


A White Queen for Wonderland

by Tangerine_Catnip



Category: American McGee's Alice, The Evil Within (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Crossdressing, Crossover, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-21
Updated: 2015-04-21
Packaged: 2018-03-25 01:56:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,504
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3792265
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tangerine_Catnip/pseuds/Tangerine_Catnip
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Returned to Rutledge asylum Alice Liddell spends her days weaving in and out of wonderland, reality, and someplace in-between. But unlike her last stay at Rutledge, she need not suffer alone. When not locked up or doing chores, Alice spends her time with a young lady named Leslie Withers, who isn't actually a lady at all.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A White Queen for Wonderland

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this fic four months ago and only just got around to finishing it. it's a little odd but I had a lot of fun writing it. Alice and Leslie seem to go together like pees in a pod.

Alice bent to the ground, her fingertips brushing the grass before curling around a bright yellow dandelion. With a gentle tug she broke the stem, milky sap pooling around the hollow tube like blood over a wound.

She tucked the flower into the pocket of her apron with the others. She had at least two handfuls of weeds now. Some with long stems, others with short ones. Some with flowers, and some without.

With her collection in hand, she returned to a rusty old bench, half hidden under an overgrown willow tree. Sitting on the bench, just left of a weather-worn plaque that bore the name of a wealthy donor to Rutledge asylum, a young lady was sitting.

Her legs were crossed under her gray skirt, the fabric pooling in her lap like a basket and holding her crafting materials steady as she worked on them.

Alice deposited her two fresh handfuls of weeds into the lady's lap, and then turned to take the place next to her on the bench. The sun was starting to set over the asylum courtyard. Soon, they would all be hustled back inside and into their locked rooms. But for now, the peace would last a little while longer.

All the girls at the Asylum wore white dresses and petticoats. White was best for blenching out unsightly stains, be they from dropped food or spilled blood. Fair skinned English girls looked poorly in white though. It made them look even sicklier then they would have otherwise.

Though, as much as Alice hated her white smock and apron, she could hardly think to complain about appearing ghost-like when sitting next to Lady Leslie.

The almighty had seen his way fit to bestow on Alice's friend both madness and albinism. Her skin and hair were as white as her clothes, as if the asylum staff had thrown her in with the washing up and blenched her as bright as the whitewashed walls.

To make matters even worse for the poor thing, her brand of madness made her sullen and detached. As if she was seeing a world quite unlike the one around her. The lady's natural quietness was interspersed with uncontrollable ravings where she would repeat words that were said to her until they lost all sense or meaning.

These two factors gave Leslie the reputation of a poltergeist, and with this reputation she had frightened away quite a few superstitious would-be nurses.

Alice couldn't quite see the reason behind that. For even if Leslie appeared, when seated or still, to be spectral in nature. One only had to observe the shuffling, almost duck-like gate of the lady's walk to realize she was as bound to the mortal coil as any of them.

Alice watched her friend as she gently tied together jewelry made of what was found growing in the courtyard. Like any good woman of breeding, Lady Leslie hated to be without her accents.

Only, Leslie wasn't quite a woman of good breeding. She lacked a tiny piece of that. In particular the letters W and O.

Everyone in the asylum knew the lady's secret. Everyone but Leslie herself. She had no idea she wasn't like the other girls at Rutledge. She was dressed as any other girl there, and had never had occasion to see any other girls undressed to notice the differences.

The staff at the asylum rarely held their tongues around the inmates. No one ever took the ravings of a mad girl seriously, so why bother? And so, Alice had had occasion to pick up the tale of why Lady Leslie's papers listed her as female.

If Lady Leslie wasn't Lady Leslie. Then she would have been viscount withers. First in line for a position as a noble peer of the realm.

It wasn't clear to Alice if it was the albinism or the madness that had driven the earl withers to bribe the doctors and the asylum into playing along with his facade. Either way, he must have believed that being of a female persuasion and stricken with madness was more damming than one of those things would have been alone.

Madness could be cured, however rarely. But womanhood was a strike against someone for eternity, especially when inheritance was in question.

Alice closed her eyes. When she opened them again, she saw a completely new perspective. Instead of ending at the gray courtyard walls, the horizon stretched out over the deluded depths. The floating card palace drifted serenely over the waters, its various towers and turrets shifting in an ever changing state of flux.

Alice's wonderland was always there now, drifting on the edge of her mind. If she didn't keep her focus, it would slip back into place. Invading the real world and sticking to it like spilled treacle syrup.

At first Alice was distressed and rather annoyed by wonderlands presence in her world. Surely her reward for doing away with the despicable doll maker wasn't just to sink further into her own delusions. She had fought and bested her demons inside and out. Surely she deserved to rest now… Didn't she?

But as time had gone on the idea of never returning to the real world became less and less frightening. She had no place in London, not now and not ever. But in wonderland where everyone was mad, she fits right in.

Truly, she would have slipped back into her strap covered boots and left her physical body mindless months ago if it weren't for Leslie.

Alice had not had any friends since the death of her elder sister Lizzie. Not any outside her wonderland at least. She had been isolated and alone for much of her teenage life, as the result of her actions or someone else's.

But now her heart had found some peace, it now seemed like the time that she could spare the sanity to help someone else.

She fancied sometimes that Leslie was her younger sister and that she could help and guide Leslie like Lizzie had done for her when she was only a very little girl.

But then, Alice had also once fancied that she could save the insane children from becoming the cast-offs of the doll maker. She had failed them, and who's to say that Leslie would fare any better from her efforts.

But for now Alice would try and fight off wonderland for a little while longer. If nothing else came from it, she would still try.

Leslie lifted her creation from her lap, admiring the finished product for the first time. She wove the strands and roots tightly together and spread out the flowers like pearls across the breadth of the necklace.

She turned to Alice, the ghost of a smile on her lips. That was just about as much happiness as anyone dared have in Rutledge asylum.

Alice held out her hand and touched the flower necklace. At her touch wonderland caught hold of it and the twisted grass became gold and the flowers crystallized sunlight.

Wonderland had a habit of doing that. To make things that Alice felt or thought become real. At least as real as things in wonderland could be.

To a lady who had enough wealth to wear real jewels, the braided flower necklace would seem nothing short of appalling. But in the gray on gray would in witch Alice and Leslie lived, it was just as valuable as a piece of the crown jewels.

Alice lifted the spun sunshine and slipped the chain around Leslie's neck. Her pale skin looked good in gold, she seemed to glow with it. Leslie took Alice's hand and rose to her feet. Tugging gently on the older girl's arm.

Wonderland wrapped around Leslie, starting from where her hand held Alice's and spiraling out. Under the ever-blue skies, Leslie was dressed in a shimmering white ball gown. One so gorgeous that only the pictures in storybooks compared. Her hair was long in wonderland, long and braided with red ribbon. In Alice's world there were no vengeful nurses to cut it short and uneven.

The best of coarse was the tiara, set with rubies to contrast the fair skin of the white queen.

The last white queen of wonderland was long dead. Two times dead, in fact. But Wonderland was her world and in it Alice could promote a pawn to take her place.

Alice owned the world, but would never be a queen in it. For her, wonderland was a battlefield and she a stalwart knight.

"Come on Alice. A necklace this fine deserves a dance, don't you agree?"

Leslie's voice in wonderland was tiny and soft, carrying an aristocratic lint that spoke to her lineage. Alice was never quite sure how Leslie was able to communicate with her when in wonderland. It could be that Leslie's words were just more figments of Alice's deranged mind.

"Necklaces don't usually have the legs to dance. But if will please her lady-ship then I suppose we should."

Alice led the white queen away from the bench. Placing one hand on Leslie's hip and holding the other one in hers. She gently led the queen through the first few steps of a waltz.

Perhaps sensing a moment when they were needed, a few of the singing bottle fish stuck their heads out the shining surface of the deluded depths. Then began to hum a not completely out of tune song.

Alice's short blue dress made it easy to watch her own toes. It's probably for the best since her boots were better used for stomping and kicking then fine footwork.

Alice took a step back and twirled the white queen. Her wide pearl tone skirts billowed out in a cloud of rose petals and butterflies. Leslie laughed, a high musical tone like wind chimes being gently tossed in a warm summer breeze.

Then the lady stilled. The butterflies and rose petals vanished in midair as if they had never been. The life and energy seemed to vanish out of the white queen as if her happiness was a shiny soap bubble that had just been pricked mercilessly with a fork.

"The beasts are out. They're going to take me away again." Leslie clung tightly to Alice. The look in her eyes, both desperate and hopeless.

"But the sun had not yet set. Time is not a faithful friend, but he holds our hand on this matter." Alice glanced over her shoulder as she spoke, her eyes falling on the clawed monsters that were stalking towards them. The beasts wore the uniforms of medical staff stretched over twisted limbs and ripped in places from barbed spikes and the rough hide.

"They come for me especially. Father's men come to check on my progress. I heard them from my window. Faces like barbed wire, you would never forget it if you saw them." Leslie spoke faster as the beasts neared.

The monsters circled them, hungry eyes looking for an opening to strike. Snarls and Gnashing teeth rung in Alice's ears. They were close enough now she could smell they're feted breathe, it turned her stomach and made her head spin.

Sensing a moment to strike, one of the beasts detached itself from the circling horde and launched at the white queen. Its fangs sunk into flesh and a stain of bright red blood spread out from the monster's locked jaws, pouring down Leslie's shoulder.

The beast turned its head and yanked Leslie away from Alice. Wonderland shattered around them and cruel reality seeped back in. Lady Leslie was being held tight from the arm by one of the two nurses sent to fetch her.

Leslie didn't fight, she knew better than that, but her fingers still stretched out for Alice as she was dragged away.

Wonderland settled back around Alice, like the surface of a deep pool coming to rest after a rock had been thrown in.

Alice sunk to the ground and wrapped her arms around her knees. The flowers and grass around her wilted and turned black. Alice knew she shouldn't sit and pout. If she didn't want Leslie to be taken away, she should fight back.

But fighting back had its own unique cost and every time Alice thought she was about to gather the courage she found herself frozen. Punishment at Rutledge was swift and heavily balanced against the crime. A strike to a nurse would result in a two week long confinement. If the staff was feeling merciful the confinement would be in your room. If they weren't, the confident would be in the hydrotherapy tubs.

Alice had only been in the tubs once before, it had been prescribed to her after two weeks straight of insomnia. Her eyes had been covered with a thick leather blindfold and she had been forced into the tub full of over-warm water. Thick canvases covered the top preventing her from escaping and keeping the stifling heat in. Only her neck and upwards was spared from the torment, but the screams of the other inmates made Alice wish she could bury herself under the water and stay there.

But even the horrid memory was just an excuse. One of her many excuses for failing her friend. The fact that her resistance wouldn't change the inevitable and that she had no place in this world to run to were simply more excuses.

Killing Bumby had given her revenge so well deserved, but the abuses would never ever end. Kill one rat and two more would take its place.

Alice was still helpless to protect anyone, no matter how much she cared about them. Failure after failure, she stood and watched as others got cut down around her.

Alice burred her face in her hands and sobbed bitterly. Wonderland dissolved around her and left her crying in the poorly tended courtyard, hidden under the branches of an overgrown willow tree.

* * *

 

Alice sat crossed legged in the corner of the kitchen. A potato in her hand and a bowl full of peals in her lap. Every inmate had her chores. Most worked in the laundry. They washed the clothes of every soul there as well as those of people living in the nearby villages as a secondary source of income.

The younger or weaker girls would be given more household tasks. Sweeping the floors, or like Alice was engaging in, helping in the kitchen.

Alice had shown vary capable of handling a knife and became the preferred peeler soon after arriving. She had become almost a fixture in the kitchen now and none of the cooks spared her even a glance as they went about preparing dinner.

Even if they weren't watching her, Alice always had an ear on her surroundings as she worked. All the best gossip was traded in the kitchen, and because of her privileged position Alice was privy to many of the secrets of the staff and the Asylum.

So when the two men entered through the back door and headed for the storeroom, Alice noticed them immediately. She recognized the shorter man as the Chief Physician, the fat faced and slightly oily gentleman in charge of many patients in the asylum.

Beside him was a finely dressed man, clean cut and giving the clear impression of someone who hadn't had to worry over money in his life.

One of the kitchen maids leaned into the woman next to her and whispered, "That's lord Withers that is. Stand up straight Debora."

The knife Alice was holding paused mid-peal. Leslie had told her that men had come to see her. But that had been in wonderland, and her words were only figments of Alice's imagination. She must have heard or seen something that had made her realize Leslie would have had visitors today. Then her memory had dragged it up in wonderland.

The door to the pantry was closed to allow the two to converse in private. But Alice knew a second pantry connected to the first by a cold air passage and if you stood in one you could clearly hear the words spoken in the other.

Alice faked a need for more potatoes and slipped off, keeping her head down as she slipped into the second pantry and closed the door.

"-Come to my attention that you are not averse to making a few extra pounds in exchange for the company of one of your madness-stuck young ladies."

"No, not adverse at all, my lord. Did one of the girls catch your attention? I can advise you on their temperaments if you like. Many of the loveliest ones are not violent in their madness, but if it suits you, I know one or two who would suit an adventurous taste."

Alice could not breathe. Not again. Out of one den of abuse and into another. Again she was an utter fool and missed what was right in front of her. Even in this supposed reputable institution, there were men who would trade the innocence of others they had power over.

"I wish to have some time alone with my dear Leslie."

"You're… cousin, my lord?"

No… No. No. No. No. not her. Why her. If this man was from her family, he must know. Oh please let him be mistaken. Surely her secret would save her, surely.

The Chief Physician seemed to be having the same thought as Alice for next he asked.

"You are aware of Leslie's… condition. She won't make for the most feminine of company."

"Let me keep my own interests. Ten pounds are in it for you, ten times the profit."

"I'll have the nurses cleared out of the second floor east wing for you. Will two hours do?"

"Perfectly..."

Alice waited in silence as the doctor and lord withers exchanged a rustling handful of bills and exited the pantry. She held an armful of potatoes, squeezing them hard enough to turn her knuckles white.

Leslie… her white queen… such evil lurked in her bloodline it was completely unspeakable. They took everything from her, and now they were back to take even more.

Alice returned to her spot in the corner. She had left her paring knife sitting in the bowl of peals, but when she came back the blade resting among the skins has vanished. In its place, barely fitting inside the bowl, was her old and faithful friend. The vorpal blade. Alice bent to pick it up, her tiny fingers wrapping tightly around the ornate handle. A torrent of energy shot up her arm, echoing with the familiar snicker-snack sound.

The vorpal blade's long and flat surface lacked its usual permanent sheen of blood. It was likely hungry for more, and what kind of friend would Alice be if she let it go without.

* * *

 

It took thirty precious minutes for Alice to slip from the kitchen unnoticed. As soon as every eye was off her, she vanished in a cloud of butterflies, reforming outside the kitchen door in the hallways beyond.

Her familiar blue dress swayed with each long and purposeful step. The white bow with skull decoration flowing out behind her.

Alice didn't know where Leslie's room was, she had only been allowed to see her friend at meal times and recreation and all the cells were nearly identical aside from the few meager possessions the girls had been able to keep from their past lives.

Alice did have a clue though. The Chief Physician had promised there would be no witnesses to this crime. If she could find the silence. The part of the hospital abandoned by everyone who might hear a cry for help.

Grass poked up between the tiles under her feet, cracking them in two. The vegetation of the vale of tears invaded the asylum. Threes cracked open the walls and water pooled around Alice's back boots as the north stairwell turned into a fast flowing river.

A black cat, so thin that he was hardly more than skin stretched over a pointed skeleton, slunk around a corner.

"The soaring eagle with vengeance flies, but can it catch prey without eyes?" he asked, catching up to Alice and falling into step beside her.

"Be gone cat." Alice hissed, bending around a tree trunk to see down the next hallway. There were to nurses folding linen. Not that way.

"My dear Alice, while I would prefer to give less than a fig in summer about your affairs. In the interest of preserving my precious skin, I ask that you at least consider not to tossing yourself into this rabbit hole." The Cheshire cat purred, keeping pace with Alice easily as she ran down another empty hallway.

"I can't leave her." Alice replied, pausing between sentences to catch her breath. "Even if I could, the guilt of letting another innocent suffer while I hold my fingers in my ears would be unbearable. Just you see, what's left of wonderland will crumble around both of us, and you can tell your precious skin that."

The Cheshire cat grumbled, then pounced. Getting underfoot and forcing Alice to stop or trip over the blasted animal. She cursed and almost kicked the vexing feline in retaliation for making her stop.

"Her room is on the second floor, with a window facing the courtyard." The cat snapped his yellow eyes boring up into her own.

"How the devil do you know that?" Alice snapped, the hilt of the vorpal blade seemed to heat up against her hand. She wanted to take his advice and retrace her steps to the stairs, but she needed to know the problematical feline wasn't lying to her.

"You heard the directions yourself in the freezer. You simply forgot them." the cat answered, flicking his tail, trying to look innocent.

"Oh, so help me, if you made me forget." Alice began, but she forgot to make the rest of her threat as she peeled off towards the other side of the hospital.

When she at last reached the hallway closest to the garden Alice forced herself to slow her pace. This time there would be no convenient train to help her. She couldn't risk the awful Lordling seeing her before she got her moment to strike.

She could hear distant mumbling that grew into unmistakable muffled screaming. Alice's heart beat like a jackhammer against her ribs. It took all her willpower not to break out into a run once more and throw herself on the villain who was making her dear Leslie scream like that.

Wonderland reacted to her raging emotions. Black goo began to leak from the walls around her, gaps in the floor opened up and fire sprang forth.

The door to Leslie's room was open a crack. Just like Lizzie's door had been so many years ago. But this time she wouldn't hide under her covers fearing the monsters. This time she was the monster and this vile worm would fear her.

Alice pushed open the door. There she was. The white queen dressed in her finery and golden crown. A rotting, maggot infested black corpse with wicked claws held her down. Keeping her mouth shut and tearing off her gorgeous gown.

The wretch had his back to her and hadn't noticed her entrance. Alice took two quick steps and lifted the vorpal blade. She looked into the white queen's eyes. So much of her innocence ripped from her all at once, and in a moment Alice would add to her suffering.

The vorpal blade was so swift in her hand, she struck out with it again and again until the screeching stopped and then still more, even passed that point. Black goo coated her from head to foot searing against her skin. The wretch was full of it and it got everywhere. Especially all over Leslie's gorgeous dress.

Her friend screamed too, louder once the clawed hands fell from her face. She kicked and screamed and eventually managed to throw the limp corpse off of her. Alice followed it to the floor, working until finally her raged ebbed and she was kneeling in a pool of blood on the floor.

Wonderland was gone. She was kneeling on the tiled floor a dead man in a suit with a peeling knife sticking from his back.

Leslie cowered on her bed, clutching at her knees and rocking back and forth. Her hospital dress was covered in trace blood splatter and ripped along the hem. Her underclothes had gone missing as well.

Alice wanted to apologize, but they didn't have time. She would just have to hope that there was still a shred of trust left for her in Leslie's heart.

She reached out her bloodstained hand to Leslie, slim pale fingers open palm upwards. At first Leslie shrank away from her, but after a moment she seemed to reconsider. Shifting as far away from the dead man on the floor as possible Leslie stepped off the bed, taking Alice's hand in her own trebling one.

"We're going to fall now Leslie. Don't be scared."

And with that last warning Alice grasped Leslie's hand tightly and they both tumbled backwards. Down into the large rabbit-hole under the hedge, never once considering how in the world they would get out again.

* * *

 

"Oh my. **OH MY**."

The last of the butterflies and petals disappeared. Alice smoothed down the skirt and apron of her blue dress. The dense forest of the vale of tears surrounded them on all sides, but thankfully they had landed in a clearing and were mostly unharmed.

Leslie hiked up her own skirts, but once she was able to move she seemed unsure of where she wanted to go.

"Alice. Where are we? What happened?" the questions tumbled out of Leslie's mouth now she could speak again. She glanced around her wildly unsure where she wanted to look. "It's gorgeous."

Alice found her vorpal blade, it had fallen with them and landed blade first in the glass. She moved to pick it up. Leslie turned and saw the weapon, flinching away from it.

"You... you… killed him…" Leslie stammered. Her eyes going hallow as she remembered the blood and violence and the madness in Alice's eyes.

Alice nodded. "He was going to… hurt you. I couldn't let him."

Leslie blinked her gaze falling to her feet. "He was going to hurt me… hurt me…"

Alice strode over to her friend taking her hand and pressing the hilt of the vorpal blade into it. Grasping Leslie's wrist so she couldn't pull away.

"If you're planning on staying in wonderland you're going to need this." Alice explained her hand guiding Leslie's until the younger girl was holding the weapon properly.

"It's up to you to fight. I slew my demons with this blade and now's your turn to do the same."

Leslie looked up at Alice and nodded. Earning a smile from the other girl.

"I'll be by your side as long as I can your majesty. White Queen of wonderland."


End file.
